Kidnap the Sandy Claws, lock him up real tight Throw away the key and then Turn off all the lights

I figured this would be a fitting week to check out an exclusive set from the New York Comic Con. This set includes three mischief makers from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas; Lock, Shock & Barrel, along with a battle-damaged Jack Skellington. Will they be a holiday treat … read on to find out!

Packaging

I love they came back to this packaging style that was used for HALO vehicle sets. It’s a large red irregular hexagon shaped box. There’s a large window in front so you can see the figures/accessories from the front, sides and top. On the front the NYCC 2015 logo is there along with the Nightmare Before Christmas name and cut out of Jack holding the Minimates logo. And on the top you get a nice little picture of Zero. The back has pictures of the figures and accessories along with a bio of the characters.

The Figures

Battle Damaged Jack

Not sure I would have picked this version of Jack to go with this set. It might have been better to include Santa (with a big bag to put him in) or a regular version of Jack Skellington with his angry face. Regardless, still a cool version of him and the red looks really good with the box.

The style of these characters translate very well to minimate form. His facial features are simple but the smallest details portray such an array of emotion; note the woeful eyes and “oh no” shaped mouth. Jack has a collar-piece for his Santa outfit. His torso is elongated and slimmed down so he keeps his thin frame. Paint apps shows a nice mix of the red battle damaged Santa outfit with his black and white pinstriped normal clothes underneath. We’ve had many battle damaged minimate figures released before but this is one of the best. He has a torn coat-tail piece that fits on the waist peg along with two red cuff pieces with little shreds dangling. No extra accessories aside from a clear base stand. I honestly would have liked a stone angel accessory for him to lay on but perhaps if this line does well we’ll see one in a separate set.

I haven’t seen many (if any) figures released of Jack in this battle damaged form; he’s definitely an impressive figure.

MMC Score – 9 out of 10

Lock

Part of the trio of trouble, Lock is a mischievous little devil. He has an excellent red hairpiece with two strands in the front sculpted up to form little horns. His head is elongated and has top notch details for his face. Again, the simple lines and bright colors used in the movie make an excellent transition to minimate form. I especially like the slant on his sly grin.

His body is the smaller kid frame we’ve seen before in the Disney Peter Pan figures: shorter torso, short arms and legs. The deep red color looks real good with white for his hands. He has a small skirt piece with little devil tail attached. His feet may look like they’re separate but they’re sculpted part of the legs with little curved toe-tips.

For an accessory Lock comes with his lighter red devil mask. The mask attaches below the head with a loop that fits over the head peg. It is rather tight so you have to make sure you push the head all the way down so it fits right. But once you do you can even see his eyes through the slits in the mask. He is a great looking little red devil!

Each figure comes with a clear base stand and an accessory that could be considered a figure of its own. How would Lock, Shock & Barrel travel without their walking bathtub? The bathtub itself is an excellent sculpt with details for the faucet and pipe tail. The claw feet legs are actual minimate legs on ball-joints from the tub so you can make the tub walk. All three figures fit inside tub and if you feel so inclined you can even create a little bag to put inside so it looks like they caught their target (and yes I know in the movie the bag was black but I like the look of the red bag instead).

MMC Score – 9 out of 10

Shock

This crafty little witch keeps the boys in line. Like Lock she has an elongated white head with really good facial details. Her purple witch hat looks perfect; oversize rim with curving point like a long witch’s finger. There’s even her blue hair around the back of the hat. She also has a shortened body. The hands and sculpted witch feet look like they are separate but they are part of the arms and legs. She has a purple dress shaped torso cover with just a purple blank underneath and her legs are all black. Not a lot of detail needed but the colors are spot on.

As an accessory she comes with her green witch mask but this one is very difficult to keep on. The mask fits from the bottom on the head peg but issue comes in where there’s already a torso cover and the loop that fits for the mask is a bit thicker than needed. So by the time you try to fit on her head there not a lot of room on the peg for her head to fit. Add to that when you try to fit on her hat the mask is too high that the hat piece doesn’t go all the way down. Now if you can get it to hold all together it looks really good and eye slits match up ok too. Just getting her to stay with her head with mask on is difficult. As a solution you could sand down the plastic for the mask loop so there’s more space for her head.

Mask issue aside, she still makes a wonderfully wicked witch!

MMC Score – 8 out of 10

Barrel

Barrel is the last of the trio and is a spooky skeleton. I think we found the inspiration for the new Joker’s hairstyle. He does have a nice looking slicked back green hair (perfect piece for future customs after the new DC movies come out). Unlike the other two he has a standard minimate head and his face is my favorite of the group; like a sugar skull with bright colors and big eyes. He does have the same shorter body style all done in grey with simple but very very effective bones details on his arms, legs and torso. They’ve included a short waist cover but he still have full movement of his legs with this cover on.

He also comes with a mask which is the best one in my option. The mask fits perfectly and the big holes for his eyes really make it pop. I also love the big yellow grin on the mask. I could see this piece used for many other customs.

Barrel’s definitely my favorite but the trio is a must have for any NBX fan! Overall this is an outstanding box set and a great start to the line.